VERONA, DIOCESE OF. – A city in the Veneto, capital of the province, situated at the foot of the foothills of the Lessini mountains, watered by the Adige, along whose banks stretch the enchanting “Lungadigi.” The two banks are joined by ten bridges, destroyed by the Germans (April 1945); the most characteristic and historically important are the Scaliger Bridge, medieval (second half of the 14th century), rebuilt as it was and where it stood (1950), and the “Pietra” Bridge, Roman in its two left arches, 16th century in the others.
Due to its position, Verona held preeminent importance as a Roman, medieval, and modern center. A first-class railway junction connects it to the Brenner Pass and to Milan, Venice, and Bologna. The economic life is based on agriculture and viticulture (the wines are prized and well-known); gradually, the mining, construction, chemical, food, and hydroelectric industries are developing and intensifying. A substantial network of canals provides irrigation for the water-poor areas within the same province. The city covers 199.77 sq km, with a population of 186,555.
The diocese, formerly a suffragan of Aquileia and now of Venice, borders the dioceses of Trento, Brescia, Mantua, Rovigo, Vicenza, and Padua; it covers 3,098 sq km and has a population of 645,402; 319 parishes, 26 curacies, 11 rectories (7 non-residential), 3 shrines, 260 public oratories, 331 semi-public, 68 private; 664 priests, 186 regular clergy, and 3,280 religious sisters.
I. HISTORY
The origins of Verona are uncertain: the first nucleus was probably formed by Celts, Etruscans, and Euganeans, peoples who established a ferry crossing on the Adige for transit and trade; it was first an important Venetic center; in the Roman era (3rd century B.C.) it was a crossroads of roads that later took the names of Postumia (from the Lombard plain to Aquileia) and Clodia (from the Po Valley to the Alps, along the Adige). In the subsequent political organization of Venetia, it was first a municipium and then, under Augustus, a colony (Colonia Augusta V.), enrolled in the Poblilia tribe. The Roman city, laid out in a square, rose within the bend of the Adige, divided into four zones by the main decumanus (the street corresponding to the Corsi Crispi and the Roman Porta dei Borsari) and by the main cardo (the perpendicular street corresponding to the Via Cappello and S. Egidio); at their intersection stood the Forum, now Piazza Erbe. The Roman city walls ran from the Adige along Via A. Diaz, then near the present church of S. Niccolò, turning onto Via Leoncino to return to the river; in 265 the emperor Gallienus rebuilt the walls, expanding their perimeter to include the Arena. In 312 the emperor Constantine won the victory over Maxentius that opened the way to Rome. Verona, among the cities of the “X Regio Augustea,” of which Aquileia was the capital, was perhaps the first to receive Christianity and to have an ecclesiastical hierarchy (mid-3rd century) after Aquileia.The *Papinian Ritual* and the *Veil of Classe*, both from the early 9th century, provide the series of bishops of Verona: the fourth in the series is Proculus (A.D. 304); the sixth is Lucillus, present at the Council of Serdica (A.D. 343–44); the eighth is St. Zeno (362–80), of African origin, a luminous figure of a saint and learned shepherd, who carried out his ministry during the Ambrosian period, as can be inferred from the content of his preaching, fully in keeping with the needs of the second half of the 4th century; to him is attributed the three-aisled Basilica in the area of the Duomo, with mosaic pavement and early Christian inscriptions, brought to light at the end of the last century through excavations directed by Monsignor Vignola (1884) and fortuitously resumed in 1946.
With the rise of Cangrande (1308), the Scaliger lordship consolidated, subjecting Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso; Cangrande II built Castelvecchio (1351) as a fortress and refuge. In 1386, the Scaliger power was succeeded by the Visconti of Milan; and after a brief Scaliger restoration, Verona passed to Venice (1405); in the 15th century the bishops were generally Venetians. Subsequently, Verona was involved in the Venetian wars against Milan: it was occupied by Emperor Maximilian (1509) and finally returned to Venice (1516); in the first half of the 16th century, the architect Sammicheli built walls and gates. In 1796 Verona suffered the French invasion and the following year rose up against the French (Veronese Easters); by the Treaty of Campoformio it passed to Austria, then (1804–14) to the Kingdom of Italy, and from 1814 to the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia under Austria until 1866; in 1822 the Congress was held there, adopting the political program of the Holy Alliance.
For a long period, it became a fortified camp, the pivot of the Quadrilateral, with renewed walls and a double outer ring of fortresses. Near Verona were fought decisive battles of the Risorgimento: Santa Lucia (1848), San Martino and Solferino (1859), Custoza (1866).
Among the many floods, memorable was that of 1882, which caused serious damage and led to the construction of the embankments along the Adige.
II. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND INSTITUTIONS
Among the saints born in the diocese are mentioned: St. Peter Martyr (v.), St. Angela Merici (v.), Blessed Maddalena Gabriella of Canossa, Bertoni (v.).Many bishops, in addition to St. Zeno, left a great legacy: Adelard I (876–915) lived and worked effectively during a period of political agitation between the Carolingians and German princes; Notker (915–28), endowed with outstanding virtues, and part of the Veronese clergy; Ratherius (932–68), a Benedictine, learned and eminent scholar, whose writings reveal the conditions of Verona in the 10th century and its topography as seen from the site of the present citadel (Ratherian iconography); Ognibene (1157–85), who exerted a high pacifying role in the struggle between the Italian cities and Frederick Barbarossa: after the Peace of Constance (1183), the freedom of the Church and the communes could be said of Verona: “est iusti lateri urbs haec et laudis amatrix”; Adelard II (1188–1214), the first cardinal of Verona, who took part in the Second Crusade; Ermolao Barbaro (1453–71), a benefactor of ecclesiastical sciences; Gian Matteo Giberti (1524–43), whose work was of primary importance in the pre-Tridentine reform: he laid down practical criteria for reform for the Council of Trent, of which he may be considered “quasi dux et magister” (cf. St. Ehs, *Concilium Tridentinum*, Actorum, Freiburg in Br. 1901, p. 321); Agostino Valier (1565–1608), cardinal, who in 1576 founded the Seminary, which in 1695 took up its definitive seat in the houses of the Somaschi Fathers and was adapted and embellished through the efforts of Bishops G. F. Barbarigo (1697–1714) and Morosini (1772–89); Cardinal Luigi di Canossa (1861–1900) and Cardinal Bartolomeo Bacilieri (1900–23), eminent pastoral figures whose work still has vivid echoes. The 18th century was the golden age of Veronese ecclesiastical culture, with G. Bianchini, the Ballerini brothers, Scipione Maffei, Girolamo da Prato, Vallarsi, Patuzzi, Dionisi, Perazzini, and others.
Charitable and hospital institutions, hospices, and xenodochia developed extensively in Verona and its suburbs on ancient tradition, from the first diffusion of Christianity, and continued to grow in number thanks to the Benedictine Order in its various branches, and later through the Friars Minor, Preachers, and various other male and female Orders, up to recent foundations of Veronese origin: the Congregation of Priests of the Oratory (18th century), to which Antonio Cesari belonged; Blessed Maddalena of Canossa (Canossians); the Venerable Gaspare Bertoni (1816, Stigmatines); Don Mazzà; Monsignor Daniele Comboni, to whom the foundation (1867) of the flourishing Institute of the Sons of the Sacred Heart for Missions in Africa (with mother house and generalate in Verona) is attributed; Don A. Provolo (for the Deaf and Dumb), Don Calabria (with the thriving and meritorious Work of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence). Among the female institutes: Sisters of Mercy, Pious Mothers of the Negro Race, Daughters of Saint Mary Immaculate, Daughters of Jesus, Holy Family (Terese), Little Daughters of Saint Joseph, Deaf and Dumb, Minimal Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, Third Order Franciscans, Poor Clares.
During the repair and restoration of the medieval cloister and the Chapter Library, severely damaged by aerial bombings; the Basilica, in its structural and mosaic elements, has stylistic relationships
Deaf and Mute, Minimal Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, Third Order Franciscans, Poor Clares.
III. ABBEYS AND MONASTERIES
The most important is certainly the Abbey of Saint Zeno. Erected on the right bank of the Adige, facing Verona, probably on the site of an early Christian settlement, linked to the memory of the eighth bishop of Verona, Saint Zeno (second half of the 4th century), Bishop Petronius (5th century), and the miracle narrated by Saint Gregory the Great, whereby the swollen river did not breach its walls. Tradition and some elements of late Christian sculpture, reused in the annexed oratory of Saint Benedict (12th century), would confirm the hypothesis of a church and monastery for virgins, also in connection with expressions by Saint Ambrose, who speaks of a virgin named Indicia, approved by the judgment of Saint Zeno.Documented news of the Abbey dates back to the early 9th century, when King Pepin and Bishop Ratoldo, under the plan of the archdeacon Pacifico, erected the church over the body of Saint Zeno; the Benedictine monks took custody of it, and the abbey they founded grew and prospered rapidly, becoming independent of the bishop and earning protection, privileges, and possessions from Pepin, Louis the Pious, Berengar, Urban III, Frederick II; it soon acquired political importance and feudal jurisdiction over Bardolino (church of Saint Zeno on Lake Garda), Caffi, Ostiglia, Visgasio, Trevenzulo, Cellore di Illasi, Pastrengo, Castelnuovo dell'Alba (Auffi and surroundings), Chievo and Romagnano, and some lands of Bonferraro, Roncolento, Pigozzo, Fatoledo, etc. These possessions were distributed to colonists on favorable terms, often becoming their property under the high dominion of the monks, while others remained in the abbey’s ownership until its suppression. Bishop Ratherius, with the help of Otto I, restored the abbey damaged by Hungarian invasions; Abbot Alberico (mid-11th century) laid the foundations of the bell tower, which Abbot Gerard (1163–67) raised, slender and elegant, in its Romanesque structure.
During the rule of the Scaligers, the abbey became almost their domain; in 1425 it passed to commendatory abbots who entrusted it to German monks until 1630; suppressed by the Venetian Republic (1753), its assets were ceded to the hospital of Verona (1779), the buildings sold (1810) and then demolished for construction materials. Only a modest remnant survives, with some cells and medieval structures; the Romanesque cloister (12th–13th century) remains, with paired marble columns and round arches, with later additions (14th century) of pointed arches, along with the oratory of Saint Benedict and the massive tower with Ghibelline merlons (13th century); on one side of the cloister a small colonnaded enclosure (lavabo) is attached. The 9th-century church, after damage from the Hungarian invasion (10th century) and the earthquake (1117), underwent transformations and expansions: lengthened to the west and renewed on the sides (12th century); between the 12th and 13th centuries the central part was raised with the façade, while the tribune above the crypt was adapted (13th century) and the apse took on Gothic form and structure (1389–96); to this period also belongs the ship’s-keel roof.
In 1459, Andrea Mantegna, commissioned by the commendatory abbot Correr, executed for the high altar the admirable triptych with the Madonna enthroned between Saints Peter and Paul (v. vol. VII, tav. 128); the predella with Scenes of the Crucifixion, removed during the French Revolution, is now in the Louvre. In the vast and evocative crypt, with nine naves, lie the tombs of Saint Zeno and other Veronese bishops. As a whole, the Basilica is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in the Veneto; the façade, divided by slender pilaster strips, with an airy prototype and lion supports (by Niccolò, 1138) and a fragile fortune’s wheel rose window (Brioloto, late 12th century) and blind arcades, is enriched by the bronze portal, which bears biblical scenes and the life of Saint Zeno in a series of elegant panels: a high expression of local art, with Carolingian influences (9th–10th centuries) according to some scholars; others instead see prevailing Ottonian influences from the late 11th century and thus Romanesque. On the sides of the prototype are carved on marble the bas-reliefs of Genesis, attributed to Niccolò, and scenes from the life of Christ, attributed to Guglielmo (1138): a group of Romanesque sculptures among the most notable of the 12th century. The outer walls of the Basilica feature alternating courses of brick and stone, typically Venetian; the interior has three naves, divided by alternating columns and piers, with the central nave solemn and luminous, of deep spatial rhythm, echoing the Roman-Ravenna basilican style. Notable are the Romanesque capitals of the columns with floral and animal decoration, the frescoes on the walls and piers; on the presbyterial tribune, the statues of Christ and the Apostles (13th century) and, in the left apsidiole, that of Saint Zeno laughing (13th century). The sacristy (15th century) is also of considerable artistic interest for its coffered ceiling, frieze and flowers, and roundels with Benedictine saints. The Basilica is splendidly framed by the Piazza and the forecourt where a beneficent festival is still celebrated, in which the whole city participates and which is called “venerdì gnocolar,” from the gnocchi distributed on the Friday before Lent.
Of Saint Mary in Ognano, a Benedictine abbey subject to the Patriarch of Aquileia from the 10th century, there are records from as early as the 6th century; it was enriched and endowed with a xenodochium by the Lombard Duke Lupo (751); Charlemagne (804) granted free passage to its carts and ships throughout the Empire; further privileges and possessions were granted by Berengar (889) and Hugh (928) and by private individuals. It gained further splendor when the Olivetans (1481) renewed and expanded the Romanesque church (traces of the 7th-century church survive in the crypt) and enriched it with superb works of art by Giolfino, Caroto, Cavazzola, Moroni, Savoldo; the carved and sculpted candelabrum (1499), the exquisite intarsia in the choir and sacristy (1504) by Fra Giovanni of Verona, an Olivetan, to whom the architecture of the bell tower is also attributed. It was a parish church in the 14th century, but the care of souls was later removed and then restored in 1808.
Within the walls of the city of V. there were two female monasteries: S. Maria in Solaro, founded in 774 by the two sisters Auteonda and Natalia, subject to S. Maria in Organo and to the Patriarch of Aquileia; and S. Pietro «ad puellas» (780), later inhabited by Benedictine monks. The church of SS. Fermo and Rustico had a Benedictine monastery attached to it (late 10th century); the church of S. Trinità had a monastery of nuns.
In the immediate vicinity of Peschiera, near the small lake, stands in a beautiful setting the sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino (16th century) with a hospice attached. The minor Basilica dedicated to St Teresa of the Child Jesus (Tombetta), in the parish of Tomba, a few kilometers from V., is also a frequent pilgrimage destination.
IV. Art
V. bears eloquent witness to every historical period through its art and monuments. Of the Roman period, the most important monuments are: the Arena amphitheatre (1st century AD), which in the Middle Ages and modern times hosted judicial duels, tournaments and chivalric festivals; restored, it now hosts large public performances. On the Via Postumia, half a kilometer from the Roman Gate, known in the Middle Ages as the Porta dei Borsari, stood the Arch of the Gavii (1st century AD), now reconstructed (1932) beside Castelvecchio; on the left bank of the Adige, on the slopes of the hill of S. Pietro, stands the theatre, one of the most notable and significant works of Roman art in northern Italy (1st century AD). In the ancient cloisters on the hill of S. Pietro, which now house the Archaeological Museum, memories of prehistoric and Roman times are preserved. In the Maffaean Museum, the oldest lapidary museum in Europe, established at the beginning of the 18th century by Scipione Maffei, are gathered many sculptural monuments, architectural fragments and Latin and Greek epigraphic documents from Veneto and other places, even outside Italy.Of the Paleochristian period are the museums in the area of the Duomo, notable remains of two basilicas of the 4th century, one of which, of larger proportions and at a higher level, is attributed to St Zeno; a superb example of a sarcophagus with a cityscape background (mid-4th century), the strigilated sarcophagus (3rd century), reworked by Christians, remarkable artefacts preserved in the crypt of S. Giovanni in Valle; in the Castelvecchio Museum, some gold-glass vessels (4th century), a reliquary casket in the form of a tiny Ravenna-style sarcophagus (6th century), remains of suspension elements of a Veronese *gabata* (lamp) (4th century); to these may be added mosaic fragments, ornamental sculptures, goldsmith works, iconographic rarities in the Chapter Library and in churches and museums (from the 6th to the 11th century); the church of S. Teuteria e Toscana, linked to the Paleochristian building, now the Romanesque church of SS. Apostoli, in its original cruciform symmetrical structure, recalls the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna and dates to the second half of the 5th century; various alterations have partly obscured its pristine appearance.
The Lombard, Carolingian and Ottonian periods left notable traces in ornamental sculpture (capitals, plutei, the ciborium of S. Giorgio di Valpolicella, bronze doors of S. Zeno) and in sacred buildings in V. and its province (S. Stefano, S. Giorgio di Valpolicella, S. Zeno di Bardolino, S. Benedetto di S. Zeno Maggiore, S. Giovanni in Fonte, S. Nazaro), crypts and primitive structures of other churches, such as S. Giovanni in Foro, S. Maria in Organo, S. Procolo, S. Giovanni in Valle.
Romanesque art, with a group of churches, gives V. a note of high spiritual and artistic value and of austere nobility. Typical are their gabled façades, built in courses of brick and tufa, weathered by the centuries, divided by pilaster strips indicating the internal naves, some with stair-towers (church of S. Lorenzo) or narthexes (S. Maria Trinità), all with overhanging eaves (S. Giovanni in Valle, S. Maria Antica), decorated with arches and fantastically carved bands with monsters and floral scrolls. The interiors evoke the mystic shadows and the perspectival recession of the pillars and columns that support, on cubic or figured capitals, the bold cross-vaults and the tiburium (S. Stefano) or the roof trusses: they have the mystery of deep crypts, the light of raised presbyteries with ambulatories (S. Stefano) and matronea (S. Lorenzo). Various houses and towers still betray Romanesque structure. Other Romanesque churches in the countryside rival those of the city in importance and architectural value and pose interesting questions of derivation and varied influences (such as S. Severo di Bardolino, S. Pietro in Valle, etc.).
The monuments of Gothic style combine and fuse constructive elements of Romanesque craftsmanship and tradition, which remained active and influential in V., and are often enriched with Renaissance decorations; in the Cathedral the Gothic evolution utilizes the Romanesque structures (1139–87) of the lower part, the apses (by Niccolò), the imposing apse with its choir, a masterpiece by Sannichelli, with Renaissance frescoes by Falconetto and canvases by Liberale, Giolfino, Morone, Caroto and Titian (the Assumption). S. Fermo Maggiore, renewed in the 8th century, rebuilt by the Benedictines (11th–12th centuries), transformed by the Friars Minor (second half of the 13th century), with a harmonious fusion of Romanesque and Gothic elements; S. Anastasia, to which the Dominican convent was attached (13th–14th centuries), now the site of the classical lyceum, recalls the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice and Italian Gothic schemes, especially in the interior; the Scaliger Arcs (14th century), unique of their kind, the work of master stonecutters from Campione. Other palaces and houses combine Venetian Gothic elements with Renaissance features. The great Veronese architect Michele Sannichelli (1484–1559), with the monumental and elegant constructions of the Pompei, Bevilacqua and Canossa Palaces (in the latter superb frescoes by G. B. Tiepolo), the Pellegrini chapel in S. Bernardino, the church and bell tower of S. Giorgio and the Duomo, the fortifications, walls and gates with their solid classical structure, gave V. a characteristic Renaissance imprint comparable to that which, at the same time, Vicenza received from Palladio and Venice from Sansovino. Sannichelli’s influence continued in later architecture, with few Baroque exceptions, and so the classical tradition persisted until the erection of the monumental Doric cemetery (1830). The supremely pure Loggia del Consiglio (late 15th century) in Piazza dei Signori is by fra’ Giocondo, where, above the cornice, Alberto da Milano carved the statues of great Veronese figures from Roman times: Catullus, Pliny, Aemilius Macer, Vitruvius and Cornelius Nepos. The characteristic and evocative Piazza Erbe, site of the ancient Forum, is adorned with Roman monuments (statue of Madonna V.), Romanesque (Torre Lamberti), Gothic (Casa dei Mercanti, Torre del Gardello), Renaissance (Casa Mazzanti and its frescoes) and Baroque (Palazzo Maffei) elements.
Veronese painting has examples from the 10th century in the frescoes of the grotto of S. Nazaro, now in the church of S. Libera on the Colle S. Pietro; in the 13th century at S. Zeno Maggiore, where the most notable sculptural cycles of the 11th and 12th centuries were also admired; in the same Basilica, Mantegna’s triptych with the Madonna and saints.
In Castelvecchio is housed the Pinacoteca of the Museum, where the Veronese school of painting is richly represented from the 13th to the 18th century. — Vedi tav. CXXXIII–CXXXIII.
V. CAPITULAR LIBRARY
Founded in the 5th century by the “Schola sacerdotum sanctae Veronensis Ecclesiae,” it drew its manuscript holdings especially from the production of its own scriptorium, for liturgical use in the Cathedral, for private study by members of the Chapter, by teachers and students of the schools attached to the Cathedral. The earliest scribe of the scriptorium to have recorded his name and date is Ursicinus “lector of the Veronese Church,” in the year 517. The greatest impetus was given to the Library in the 9th century by the archdeacon Pacificus (776–844) and by many clerics under his direction.The Capitular Library of Verona, described as “the queen of ecclesiastical collections,” is renowned for the richness and supreme importance of its manuscripts. The Veronese codices, beginning in the 5th century, represent, with a more or less numerous but always notable group, each of the subsequent centuries, especially in the early Middle Ages. Particular mention must be made of: 1) the “Gaius” (5th century, palimpsest), a unique codex and distinguished source for the study of Roman law; 2) the “St Augustine” (De Civitate Dei: 5th century), probably written while the holy Doctor was still alive; 3) and 4) “St Hilary” (In Psalmos and De Trinitate: both 5th century); 5) the Evangeliorum purpureum (5th century), one of the most important biblical manuscripts of the Vetus Latina, known among scholars by the designation Cod. b. Veron., written in silver and gold on fine purple parchment; 6) the Didascalia Apostolorum (5th century, palimpsest); 7) the “Sulpicius Severus” (AD 517), written by the aforementioned Ursicinus; 8) the Psalterium bilingue, Greek-Latin (6th century); 9) the Sacramentarium Leonianum (6th century), a liturgical codex of exceptional importance. Manuscripts of the 9th century are especially numerous, including several autographs by the archdeacon Pacificus. Other particularly valuable autographs include two manuscripts by St Lawrence Giustiniani (15th century), two by Girolamo Fracastoro (16th century), and all those by Scipione Maffei and Francesco Bianchini (18th century). Notable for their fine miniatures and bindings are: two codices from the library of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (15th century); the choir books illuminated by Turone, a Veronese painter of the 14th century; a lectionary of Holy Scripture (15th century) by a Flemish artist; and a “Candido Decembrio” (15th century) by a Lombard miniaturist. Almost all the manuscripts prior to the 10th century, together with some documents from the Archive, were restored at the Vatican Library through the generosity and munificence of Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI. The printed book collection is also excellent in both quality and quantity, comprising a good number of precious incunabula, including some unica and many very rare items. Also noteworthy is the sumptuous beauty of the Library’s setting, rebuilt (after the bombing of 4 January 1945, which destroyed it entirely) according to the most careful provisions for the safest custody, best conservation, and most dignified presentation of its bibliographical, documentary, archaeological, and artistic holdings. Noteworthy is the new chapel, entirely frescoed by Elena Gazzola Schiavi, depicting episodes from the life of the archdeacon Pacificus.